Big sigh of relief.
In my one month at the Heart Foundation, one of the main projects I've been working on is the coordination of a meeting for all of the fundraisers across the country to come to Sydney. Over the last three days, my planning and efforts have come to fruition and the meeting went down, if I do say so myself, without a hitch. It wasn't a terribly difficult feat since I coordinated board meetings at CSF for a good year and a half, and thinking through to the details is one of my strong points. But all the same, it was nice to get recognition for the success.
Day one went just fine, aside from a catering snafu where our caterer delivered all of our order (breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea) at 9:00 am. I was not pleased, but I littered the kitchen and refrigerator with "Do Not Eat" signs and was lucky enough that the staff in this office actually heeded the signs. The meeting proceeded just fine, technology fine, presenters prepared, brilliant. When lunch came around I went back to the kitchen to retrieve the "lunch boxes" I had ordered, which actually consisted of half-wrapped sandwiches and muffins shoved inside a paper bag and stapled at the top. The picture is truly complete when you imagine the grease stains at the bottom. Mm hmm, beautiful. I had ordered three special "lunch boxes" for people with dietary restrictions, one of which was a sandwich made with sourdough bread for someone with a yeast allergy. I waited until everyone else had their sandwiches, distributed the lunch bag labeled "sourdough" to the seat where that person was sitting, and went back to my desk with one of the remaining bags. As I sat down, I opened the bag and pulled out a ginormous...sourdough sandwich. Great. So I ran back to the other lunch bag for the guy with the yeast allergy, and luckily he was out of the room and hadn't opened his bag yet. I swapped bags and ate my lunch imagining the catastrophe that could have been. Imagine my disappointment in this company, seeing as how this caterer is my favorite bakery! Damn it. Well, I suppose this just goes to show that you shouldn't ruin a good thing. They never should have expanded into the lunch time catering business when their real star is lemon meringue. Silly people, stick with what you know!
But that first day was mostly filled with me greasing wheels (as I do) and nobody seeming to notice, which is what happens when wheels are greased--it goes so well, nobody pays attention to them! Boo to people, I say, for lack of appreciation. I was non-plussed with this group.
Anyhew, Tuesday went well and that night we went out to dinner at a place called Phillip's Foote down in The Rocks neighborhood, which is the oldest neighborhood in Sydney right underneath the Harbour Bridge. Strange, strange name, but it's an interactive dinner where you buy your steak, kabob, chicken breast or what have you and cook it yourself on the big outdoor barbecues. Seems strange that you would pay to cook your own steak, but it's pretty fun! I sat and had some chats with a few people I'd never spoken to before (one particular dude mentioned going to strip clubs during dinner--wha-?) and found the group, outside of work, to be fairly nice. Little chats here, my boss telling me she thinks I should be a fundraiser, and we're all having a good time. The night continued on to Cadman's Cottage, one of the oldest buildings in Sydney (maybe the oldest, I forget) where we were greeted by a man clad all in black, complete with trench coat and Aussie hat. Our guide for The Rocks ghost tour. Although he was bedecked in almost gothic attire, his smile couldn't hide behind the attire and made the adventure a bit less scary and a bit more hokey. His voice would boom in one occasion and drown in the next. I thought from the very beginning that I could see Anna doing this kind of thing with flair. Historically the tour was interesting, finding out where people had died and which places are haunted ("...this very alleyway...this actual room...that very window...") and walking around one of the poshest areas in Sydney that just a century ago was one of the dinghiest and disease-ridden places in the country. We were constantly invited to take pictures as we might have orbs in them, and I couldn't stop thinking of my stepmom and her sisters and how much they would get a kick out of the tour (though not exactly in my skeptical way). The last stop on the tour was at an old house that had been buried for about a century and was re-discovered when someone was trying to build a parking lot. Our goofy-grinned guide took one of the girls from the group down into the dark space, leaving the rest of us at the top. When he returned alone and beckoned the rest of us to follow, I couldn't help but shake my head at him. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, the girl jumped out from behind a wall to try to scare us. Mmm, could not have guessed that's what was going to happen! Spoooooooooooooky!
From there we continued to one of the local pubs for drinks, and I got the regular look of bewilderment from my boss when I asked for a glass of hot water with lemon. It happens to me regularly, but I'm not phased. My mom used to do this all the time and I was the person looking at her like she was crazy. Now I understand--this is what you do when you're cold and don't feel like having a flavored drink. I'm a big fan of this warm water business...
Anyway, Wednesday rolls around, meeting goes off without a hitch, and I was surprised to be given a sincere thank you from my boss and one or two other directors at the end. They thanked me for my good work. Of course, I brushed it off as if it were nothing, thinking they must never have had someone competent in this position before. Thinking if they didn't need to thank me so much...but at the same time thinking they should. I play mother to people at my office, which is strange because it's a role we all know me to believe I may never choose to have in life. But I play parent to these grown-ups who are all much older than myself. It's always funny to see directors and executives who take on so much of the world and then need someone to coddle and take care of them. This role isn't that extreme, but still, I guess I'm so used to self-sufficiency that I can't imagine someone else taking care of me. It's certainly always the other way around. Well, at work. :)
Anyway, I suppose that's it for now. I've got to run on out the door and meet Marcus at the train station so we can walk to the theater for a play tonight. Yay!
In my one month at the Heart Foundation, one of the main projects I've been working on is the coordination of a meeting for all of the fundraisers across the country to come to Sydney. Over the last three days, my planning and efforts have come to fruition and the meeting went down, if I do say so myself, without a hitch. It wasn't a terribly difficult feat since I coordinated board meetings at CSF for a good year and a half, and thinking through to the details is one of my strong points. But all the same, it was nice to get recognition for the success.
Day one went just fine, aside from a catering snafu where our caterer delivered all of our order (breakfast, lunch, and afternoon tea) at 9:00 am. I was not pleased, but I littered the kitchen and refrigerator with "Do Not Eat" signs and was lucky enough that the staff in this office actually heeded the signs. The meeting proceeded just fine, technology fine, presenters prepared, brilliant. When lunch came around I went back to the kitchen to retrieve the "lunch boxes" I had ordered, which actually consisted of half-wrapped sandwiches and muffins shoved inside a paper bag and stapled at the top. The picture is truly complete when you imagine the grease stains at the bottom. Mm hmm, beautiful. I had ordered three special "lunch boxes" for people with dietary restrictions, one of which was a sandwich made with sourdough bread for someone with a yeast allergy. I waited until everyone else had their sandwiches, distributed the lunch bag labeled "sourdough" to the seat where that person was sitting, and went back to my desk with one of the remaining bags. As I sat down, I opened the bag and pulled out a ginormous...sourdough sandwich. Great. So I ran back to the other lunch bag for the guy with the yeast allergy, and luckily he was out of the room and hadn't opened his bag yet. I swapped bags and ate my lunch imagining the catastrophe that could have been. Imagine my disappointment in this company, seeing as how this caterer is my favorite bakery! Damn it. Well, I suppose this just goes to show that you shouldn't ruin a good thing. They never should have expanded into the lunch time catering business when their real star is lemon meringue. Silly people, stick with what you know!
But that first day was mostly filled with me greasing wheels (as I do) and nobody seeming to notice, which is what happens when wheels are greased--it goes so well, nobody pays attention to them! Boo to people, I say, for lack of appreciation. I was non-plussed with this group.
Anyhew, Tuesday went well and that night we went out to dinner at a place called Phillip's Foote down in The Rocks neighborhood, which is the oldest neighborhood in Sydney right underneath the Harbour Bridge. Strange, strange name, but it's an interactive dinner where you buy your steak, kabob, chicken breast or what have you and cook it yourself on the big outdoor barbecues. Seems strange that you would pay to cook your own steak, but it's pretty fun! I sat and had some chats with a few people I'd never spoken to before (one particular dude mentioned going to strip clubs during dinner--wha-?) and found the group, outside of work, to be fairly nice. Little chats here, my boss telling me she thinks I should be a fundraiser, and we're all having a good time. The night continued on to Cadman's Cottage, one of the oldest buildings in Sydney (maybe the oldest, I forget) where we were greeted by a man clad all in black, complete with trench coat and Aussie hat. Our guide for The Rocks ghost tour. Although he was bedecked in almost gothic attire, his smile couldn't hide behind the attire and made the adventure a bit less scary and a bit more hokey. His voice would boom in one occasion and drown in the next. I thought from the very beginning that I could see Anna doing this kind of thing with flair. Historically the tour was interesting, finding out where people had died and which places are haunted ("...this very alleyway...this actual room...that very window...") and walking around one of the poshest areas in Sydney that just a century ago was one of the dinghiest and disease-ridden places in the country. We were constantly invited to take pictures as we might have orbs in them, and I couldn't stop thinking of my stepmom and her sisters and how much they would get a kick out of the tour (though not exactly in my skeptical way). The last stop on the tour was at an old house that had been buried for about a century and was re-discovered when someone was trying to build a parking lot. Our goofy-grinned guide took one of the girls from the group down into the dark space, leaving the rest of us at the top. When he returned alone and beckoned the rest of us to follow, I couldn't help but shake my head at him. When we got to the bottom of the stairs, the girl jumped out from behind a wall to try to scare us. Mmm, could not have guessed that's what was going to happen! Spoooooooooooooky!
From there we continued to one of the local pubs for drinks, and I got the regular look of bewilderment from my boss when I asked for a glass of hot water with lemon. It happens to me regularly, but I'm not phased. My mom used to do this all the time and I was the person looking at her like she was crazy. Now I understand--this is what you do when you're cold and don't feel like having a flavored drink. I'm a big fan of this warm water business...
Anyway, Wednesday rolls around, meeting goes off without a hitch, and I was surprised to be given a sincere thank you from my boss and one or two other directors at the end. They thanked me for my good work. Of course, I brushed it off as if it were nothing, thinking they must never have had someone competent in this position before. Thinking if they didn't need to thank me so much...but at the same time thinking they should. I play mother to people at my office, which is strange because it's a role we all know me to believe I may never choose to have in life. But I play parent to these grown-ups who are all much older than myself. It's always funny to see directors and executives who take on so much of the world and then need someone to coddle and take care of them. This role isn't that extreme, but still, I guess I'm so used to self-sufficiency that I can't imagine someone else taking care of me. It's certainly always the other way around. Well, at work. :)
Anyway, I suppose that's it for now. I've got to run on out the door and meet Marcus at the train station so we can walk to the theater for a play tonight. Yay!
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